Ripple: Tensions Of Data-Driven Reflection

Ripple: Tensions Of Data-Driven Reflection

How do emotional biosensory data displays become embroiled in questions of how or what we should feel or be?

This work explores the role of ambiguity in emotional biosensing displays. A subtle, ambiguous color-change in the garment’s pattern responds to the wearer’s skin conductance, indicating a potential moment of emotional excitement. Pairs of friends, housemates, or spouses wore such color-changing garments over the course of a conversation or in daily life. They formed social emotional interpretations about the display in a variety of contexts, relating the display to a variety of emotions such as joy or embarrassment.